Steve came out of the steam filled bathroom, after his shower. “There’s still hot water, if you want to get in there,” he said.

“Okay, I will,” Ghost said, getting off the bed. “Oh, here,” he tossed the remote control to Steve. “It don’t work very good.” He went on into the bathroom, closing the door, as Steve flipped through the tv channels.

“Nope, nothing on,” he said, and turned off the tv. He sighed, and closed his eyes. The bed was soft, and the quilts were fresh and fluffy. When Ghost returned, he saw that Steve was asleep. Turning out the light, he snuggled close to Steve, under the covers. He’d been wanting more, but he just lightly kissed Steve’s lips, and whispered, “In the morning.”

He yawned, and made himself think of home. Pictures filled his mind. He always liked thinking of home, but this time it felt different. He sensed that he needed to do this, to block other thoughts from intruding. Bad thoughts, scary thoughts, were on the edge of his consciousness. Sometime in the night, the nightmare began. Ghost flailed about, hitting Steve.

“What? Hey, stop…stop…” Steve hollered, as he came awake. Ghost was talking, and moaning. “Ghost…wake up.” Steve took hold of Ghost’s arms, but in the throes of his nightmare, Steve wasn’t able to subdue him.

Ghost sat straight up and screamed. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t seeing Steve at all. As Steve watched, as if in slow motion, Ghost turned to him and actually growled. He lunged forward, biting him hard on the shoulder. Steve screamed in pain, as he felt blood trickle down his arm. In a purely reflexive action, he hit Ghost hard across the face, to make him stop biting.

“God damn it, that hurt…get away, Ghost…what the hell is wrong with you?” Steve shouted, scrambling backwards off the bed. Ghost lunged again, his teeth bared and bloody, still in his nightmare.

Steve was frozen to the spot for a second, but managed to sidestep Ghost, as he came at him again. Running to the bathroom, he filled a cup with cold water, then threw it in Ghost’s face, hoping to wake him up. It worked. Ghost was drenched, but he shook his head, looking confused.

“Why I’m wet?” he asked, from the floor where he’d fallen. He licked his lips, and rubbed his hand over his mouth, the taste of his and Steve’s blood, and the smear of it on his hand, confused him even more. As he looked up, Steve could see that he desperately needed to get Ghost home, as soon as possible. He needed more meds, and the sessions with the therapist, just as the doctor in the hospital had urged.

Even in his pain, Steve’s heart melted with love and worry. “Ghost, you were having a nightmare. I had to wake you up, so I threw water on you. You are awake now, aren’t you?”

Ghost nodded. “I’m awake.” He coughed, and spit out blood.

Steve closed his eyes for a second. How…how am I going to explain Ghost’s busted lip, the blood, the black eye… He could see Ghost’s eye already swelling, and it looked bad. His own shoulder was throbbing and bleeding, still. A crazy, wayward thought crossed his mind, I hope he’s had his shots… He tried to muffle a burst of nervous laughter at that thought. It’s the stress, that’s all…shut up…

Ghost could barely see out his swollen eye, now. “Steve? What…why?” Steve reached out a hand to help Ghost up off the floor. They sat on the edge of the bed. Ghost, just noticing Steve’s injury, cried out, “You’re hurt, you’re bleeding…let me get a wet cloth.” His legs shook, as he shuffled to the bathroom.

Running water on the wash cloth, he looked up into the mirror, He had to steady himself on the edge of the sink, as he saw his own face. After a few deep breaths, he returned, to gently wipe blood off Steve’s shoulder. “Steve, tell me…I have to know.” He tried to look into Steve’s eyes, but Steve was hanging his head down, covering his face with his hands, shaking his head. Ghost waited.

“Oh, Ghost, I don’t even know how to say it.” Ghost was smoothing back Steve’s hair, still waiting for an explanation, and he kept dabbing the cool cloth onto himself, then onto Steve.

“You were having a real bad nightmare. Do you remember it, any of it?”

Ghost shook his head. “no, but right before I went to sleep, it felt…I don’t know, weird, or bad in here.”

“But we threw the holy water. You said something ran out. What? Did it come back in?” Steve asked.

This is a work of “fan fiction” based on the novel, “Lost Souls” by Poppy Z. Brite. All credit for the original characters, places, and some backstory mentions, belong to Ms. Brite and her publishing affiliates. Only newly introduced characters, places, and original elements of this story are entirely from my imagination. Character descriptions are a blend of the original book descriptions and my interpretation of them.

All songs included in this work will be solely owned by the original performers/writers and will be credited. Creative license is taken in including them in this story.

No harm is intended toward author, musicians, or people and situations to whom there may be a resemblance.

warning warning warning warning

The content herein is rated by me as being at the high end of MA (Mature Audience). It includes strong language, violence, sexual themes, including same sex pairings, religious themes, and fantasy horror.

[Outro: Elvis Presley]
Return to sender, address unknown
No such number, no such zone
Return to sender
Return to sender
Return to sender
Return to sender

***

Lyrics found on GeniusLyrics

***

Now, here’s another one. I actually chose this one first, but then found someone else had already picked this one. Oh well, I figure we all have lots of different readers on our blogs, so I’m including this one, too.

***

“P. S. I Love You”, by the Beatles, was released as the B side of the single, “Love Me Do”, in 1962 (UK), and 1964 (US). It was credited to the John Lennon/Paul McCartney team, as the writers, but I read that it was mostly the creation from Paul McCartney. It is on the Parlophone, and Tollie 9008 labels.

This song I found is a cover of the Beatles song. I found that most all of the Beatles song videos have been removed from Youtube.

I don’t know who did this cover, but it’s very good, in my opinion, and the photos included are nice for remembering. It also fits the prompt of writing letters.

So, I posted about the playing card I found all by itself in a parking lot. It was the 7 of hearts. I was asked to say if it brought any luck.

Well, as for lottery scratch-offs, we did win a bit here and there, a few small amounts, and a couple that were worth $100, So that was lucky. Can’t really think of anything else that happened you’d call lucky.

***

Now, here’s something silly. I usually read a book while I’m eating, and have a book stand for it. I got everything situated, then looked up to begin reading. I’d accidentally put the book upside down! Of course I had to take a picture of the ‘oops’. 🙂

***

One more odd-ball I saw today was this sign. Makes me wonder if Sunday is not included in ‘every day’!

Here’s the subject that Linda, the SOCS hostess, has asked us to consider today. Thanks, Linda!

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “door.” Write about a door you walked through this week that wasn’t your own. Enjoy!

***

The only door I walked through this past week that wasn’t my own was…the grocery store, and the Dairy Queen.

Yeah, we don’t go many places. We go get this and that at the grocery store most every day, and sometimes go eat lunch before the grocery trip. Yay us! Real exciting, huh?

What else to say about it? I have no idea. We get the same items at the store that we usually get, and at a place to eat we usually order the same thing as the other times we were there.

Now, to make it sound a bit more exciting, here’s the story.

As we walked up the sidewalk to the DQ, we did take notice of the rocks in the courtyard.

He: I guess the rock craze is over now?

Me: Probably not. I just haven’t got any rocks to paint right now. (I always want to take some of the DQ’s rocks, as they are just right for painting, but I don’t. That would be stealing. I’ve thought about asking the management if I could have some, though. One other place I did ask, and they said sure I could)

We open the glass door and walk in. There are only about 2 other customers in the restaurant, but our usual clerk is at the counter waiting to take our order. She is friendly, and greets us, as we are getting to be regular customers there, and see each other all the time. We place our order.

Me: I want the grilled chicken sandwich meal, with fries and a small coke.

He: I want 2 tacos and a medium coke.

I go over to the island to get napkins and ketchup, and He and the clerk lady start laughing, because she forgot what kind of coke I wanted. They both holler over to me, to find out.

Me: Coke

I go find a booth and sit down. He sits down, too. Then after a few minutes the clerk brings our order to the table. We eat. And talk. And leave.

We drive to the grocery store, and walk up to the automatic sliding doors. I glance over at the floral section to see if there are any new flowers to take a picture of. There aren’t. He gets a basket, and wipes the handles down with antibacterial wipes provided by the store. We are greeted by some of the clerks, as they all know us. That’s because it’s basically our home away from home, we are in there most every day. You know, like the song says…where everybody knows your name.

We wander around the store, putting things in the basket, then go to the check out place, where we banter with the cashier. Then we leave and drive home.

We enter our own front door.

So, that’s how it goes.

Happy Saturday y’all! 🙂

Update: We went through another restaurant door today. We did notice the sign on the door. Huh? Makes you wonder!